December 2005

Yes, I'm pulling a Happy Dagger (sts)

Decmeber 18, 2005: Sorry about the lack of updates. Whether it was because I was stressing about the new job (which is going good so far), painting in the new house (dining room area done, but a tad messy - needs cleanup painting now), or just being lazy (new TV room/basement is AWESOME), I am just going to pull a Happy Dagger (sts) and say that you can expect new updates on 1 Jan 2006 - can't believe it's already going to be 2006 in a few weeks. I do want to wish my dad a happy birthday on the 19th (Happy Birthday, Dad!), and to say that I won't be in LA or Las Vegas on Christmas or New Years - I'll be here in the Springs because there's too much for me to catch up on at work and it was pretty much too late to get a decent price on flights out. And to everyone who reads this site, I wish you the best holiday season yet and a fantastic New Years! See you in 2006!

Snowed In!

December 3, 2005: First off, let me wish my stepMom Pat a happy birthday! Happy Birthday Pat!

In Hobie news, I'm in Colorado Springs after a nearly 1000 mile drive here via Albuquerque. I took the Southern route (I-40 East to I-25 North) because I didn't feel like braving the Rockies again (still recovering from pissing my pants when I had to drive that when coming back from Colorado Springs in October and a sudden snowstorm showed up) via the Northern route. I'm glad I did, for a couple of reasons. First, it seems my gut worked in my favor, as the I-70 through the Rockies was snowed over and traffic stopped. No gracias. Second, and more importantly, I got a chance to visit Ryan and Jennifer in Albuquerque and also see their new son, Brandon, who is a whole 12 weeks old. It was awesome to hang out with them, and they even let me watch Survivor! Their son is so funny and cute, and fortunately, didn't fuss too much. So no crying baby for me this trip. Woo hoo! Hopefully they will come up and visit me so I can reciprocate the hospitality, and so that Ryan and I can play more video games. I had kinda forgotten how much fun we used to have playing video games hours on end while back in college. There was even one day during midterms where we played a frickin pinball game hours on end when we should have been studying. But the martians needed defeating, and we were the ones to do it. :-P

So I got to Albuquerque on the 1st, spent the night there, and that next morning headed north on the I-25 up to Colorado springs. The entire drive, even from Vegas, had been VERY windy, and this last leg was no different. I guess that should have been a portend for things to come, but I didn't think of that at the time. All I could focus on was the fact that I had to keep my car pointing straight ahead as opposed to getting blown off the road. But I got to the Springs just in time for my house's CLOSING!!! Woo hoo! Everything went quite smoothly at this point, and my awesome agent, Stacy Kibler, was there and helped me understand what was going on. Plus, she even got me a Best Buy gift certificate. I tell you, this realtor was awesome. If you're ever buying a house here, let me know and I'll get you in touch with her. So as of 2 Dec, I became a HOMEOWNER!!!! It was kind of a weird sensation to suddenly realize I have a home that I can jack up or make as nice as I want. But that also means I have to fix and maintain everything myself, which is sorta overwhelming, but I'm up for the challenge.... or so I thought! Okay, I'm kidding. But the rest of that day I unpacked my car of all its crap, and then picked up some Panda Express and settled in for the evening, thinking I could easily get the rest of the 'staples' the next day.

So I'm dreaming that night of my ceiling just massively leaking water and I am also trying to take care of some dogs (can't remember the breed). Very odd, but freaky, thinking I just bought a house that has an indoor Niagara Falls thing going on. Fortunately I woke up and realized that wasn't happening. But then I notice out of one of the windows that the sky is reddish, and that the time is about 6:30. I'm thinking it should be a little brighter than that, but who cares? Then I doze off, and when I look at the time again, it's 7:30ish, and the sky is still red. Huh? So I drag myself out of my comfy sleeping bag (still don't have belongings yet - that'll be Monday) and look out my window. HOLY SHIT! The whole place is white. Snow white. Literally. Everything was covered in snow. I really did say "holy shit" out loud because I was caught completely by surprise. Stacy had heard from the news that snow was expected on Tuesday, and so I planned off of that, thinking that I had a few days to get ready. Nope. Then it dawns on me - i have no food. I don't even have a towel because I accidentally left my travel towel at Eastgate in Vegas. D'oh! Fortunately I had bought some snow stuff at Lowe's the night before (gut feeling kicked in again, apparently), but now I was going to actually have to USE it. WhatWhatWhat? I began to wonder if anybody else was going to start driving around, if the plows were going to be working, etc. So a few hours and a few phone calls later, I decide to grow a pair and drive. It wasn't that bad by then, and the plows had made it through all the major roads. Plus, I only had to drive a few blocks because Everything I needed is all around me, which is so damn cool. Lowe's, the grocery store, Linens N' Things - they're all right there. Even closer than Best Buy (but not closer than Outback). So I was stoked. I loaded up on supplies (no starving to death in my new house for me!), got lots of stuff at Lowe's (I am trying to replace the shower head in my bathroom - the current one is all funky; yet no luck getting the old showerhead off as I don't have a proper wrench to do so. Also bought a washer and dryer which is getting delivered tomorrow!), and managed to not go to Best Buy. That's for tomorrow. As is a return trip to Lowe's, as I'm going to try and paint my dining room before I get all the stuff in. I have an idea for a pretty cool color scheme - here's hoping my imagination and reality aren't too far divergent.

But can you believe it? I'm doing homeowner stuff, and it's snowing. Two days ago, not the case. Today, the case. WOW! Tomorrow should be fun though - getting appliances delivered, painting stuff. Getting ready for Monday and all my stuff catching up to me! Yay!!!!! Let's just hope for the snow to die down a bit by then. Don't need all my stuff getting snowed on. Seriously.

Shoot me an email if you want to. I may respond. (okay, you know I will - what else have I got to do?)